Congress objects to open space policy as deadline nears

Mumbai Congress opposes new open space policy proposed by BMC, questioning the need for it and demanding the return of open spaces controlled by private parties.

Mumbai: As the last day for citizens to take a stance on the new open space policy is knocking at the door, the Mumbai Congress on Monday voted against the proposed action drafted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

HT Image

The development came in a meeting with the municipal commissioner, Iqbal S Chahal. “The BMC does not have any corporators, elected representatives or a standing committee. Why is such a policy being bought out at such a time?” Varsha Gaikwad, a Congress MLA, said, questioning the need to give up the open spaces and recreational grounds for adoption and bring out a policy when the BMC has been maintaining over 1,100 open spaces on its own.

“The BMC has spent more than ₹1,700 crore on beautification, so why can’t ₹400 be spent on the development of the open spaces?” she added.

Furthermore, she demanded that the 40 to 50 open spaces with private parties be taken back into the civic bodies fold, as they’re being used for commercial and event purposes. Their demand was for scrapping the policy.

The biggest bone they had with the policy, said Ravi Raja, former leader of the opposition of the BMC, who was present in the meeting, was the provision to pay out private players who controlled open grounds under the previous ‘caretaker policy’. HT had previously reported on this shift in the article “BMC’s new draft policy on open spaces does away with ‘caretakers’” on September 9. Raja said this was a ploy to benefit the private parties.

Kishore Gandhi, deputy municipal commissioner in charge of gardens, said that the Congress’s views will be taken into consideration. “No decision has been made on the open space policy as of yet. The objections and suggestions received will be reviewed after Tuesday,” he said.

Apart from the open space policy, the Congress also raised issues for giving offices to the guardian ministers Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Deepak Kesarkar in the BMC headquarters and the disbursement of funds in the constituencies with Congress MLAs.

In Gaikwad’s words, the municipal commissioner’s response to the two latter issues was to wash his hands off them, saying he is only following the orders of the state government and has no say in the issue.